I would say parts of Haiti would qualify. I don't know if it's 17 kids per family, but multiple kids are not uncommon in areas of extreme poverty.

Haiti is probably as close as you're going to get. It has a high fertility rate at 3.44, but for poor countries that's fairly low. (Afghanistan's is 6.29. US, a rich country, of course is 2.1). Anyway, in Haiti in particular, infant mortality rates are high, so people try again; and there are a large number of orphans, so young women are often raped, or find themselves trading sex for food, or trapped in positions of near-slavery in which their masters impregnate them.

As far as why Haiti is so poor, nearly two centuries of dictators working in the service of several wealthy families happy to drain the economy and crush reasonable alternatives, plus some geographical bad luck (high steep hills plus frequent hurricanes mean a lot of soil loss) has done a number on the country.

There was some pick-up in Haiti's economy in the late 1990s, but the 2004 coup was basically designed to destroy the civil society that was growing, for worries that a left-wing government would have some success and keep the elites from continuing to loot the place.

His heart was visible, and the dismal sack that maketh excrement of what is eaten.

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Mar 2006

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Posted On:11/20/2012 2:07pm

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Originally Posted by Rivington

As far as why Haiti is so poor, nearly two centuries of dictators working in the service of several wealthy families happy to drain the economy and crush reasonable alternatives, plus some geographical bad luck (high steep hills plus frequent hurricanes mean a lot of soil loss) has done a number on the country.

Nah. They're poor because the natives lack intelligence. Subjugation is just another symptom. It isn't the root cause.